To mark World Prematurity Day, Vygon UK raised funds for Swindon charity Tiny But Mighty, which offers support to parents and neonatal units across the South and South West.

Premature baby charity The Smallest Things is calling on the Health Secretary to make urgent changes to support the mental health needs of parents after the trauma of neonatal intensive care.

Children’s charity Rainbow Trust has welcomed the House of Lords preterm birth report. The Preterm Birth Committee was appointed at the start of the year to consider the prevention and consequences of preterm birth. The resulting report recommends a greater focus on research to understand what causes preterm birth, along with increased funding, to develop more effective interventions.

The findings of a survey by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of nearly 19,000 people who used NHS maternity services in 2024 shows some areas of improvement over the past year, particularly regarding access to mental health support. However, there remain other aspects of maternity care where people report a poorer experience and where analysis indicates a longer term decline in positive feedback over time.

The Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth (ABC) pilot was launched on 7 October 2024 across nine maternity units at NHS trusts and aims to improve maternity outcomes for women and babies.

Sands is introducing a National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) in Northern Ireland, which aims to ensure parents who have experienced the loss of a baby have opportunities to make memories with their baby, and are supported with dignity and respect.

Tommy’s, the pregnancy and child birth charity, has responded to figures that show the rate of stillbirth in England and Wales was unchanged overall in 2023 compared with the previous year.

As World Prematurity Day on 17 November raises awareness of the hurdles faced by the 15 million babies born prematurely each year – one million of whom do not survive – medical manufacturer Vygon is sharing the life-saving impact of its thermoregulation technology.

The Little Roo Neonatal Fund supports babies and families on the NICU at St Peter’s Hospital and aims to gift a book to every family to read to their baby who is being cared for on the unit.

Testing has begun of hundreds of babies for more than 200 rare genetic conditions as part of a world-leading study in NHS hospitals that aims to screen up to 100,000 newborns in England. The pioneering study aims to identify conditions such as metachromatic leukodystrophy in babies sooner and could enable hundreds to benefit from earlier diagnosis and treatment that could help slow the progression of disease and improve or even extend their lives.

The next phase of the Avoiding Brain Injuries (ABC) programme to improve and personalise maternity care and reduce the risk of two significant contributors to avoidable brain injury in childbirth commences with the rollout of a pilot training phase across nine maternity services in England.

Two years ago, Dr Michael Fernando, consultant paediatrician and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s associate medical director at Yeovil Hospital, was asked by the Rotary International President’s Special Representative to Afghanistan, Katerina Kotsali-Papadimitriou, to run the ‘Helping Babies Breathe’ programme in Afghanistan, along with Rotary clubs in Afghanistan – led by Rameen Javid from Rotary Kabul City.